because I've never successfully been able to set up my windows machine to compile perl modules from scratch. I just can't get my head around it.

I need DBD-Sybase but there is no PPD on activestate.com for DBD-Sybase that will load on build 813 (5.8.7) of ActiveState Perl. PPM won't work through the firewall, so I can't even try it and see if it'll find one automagically.

ARG.

I can't speak to 5.8.7 specifically, but ActivePerl is supposed to be compatible with CPAN, so the normal method for downloading and installing Perl modules should work. The only gotcha might be that the module you want to build contains C source files that need compiling, in which case you will need something like Visual C++ installed and set up to run from the command line.

Yep. I have c files that I need to compile, and I'm just not set up for it nor likely to be soon.

"Dear company I work for: You are not giving me access to the resources I need to do the job you pay me for. How are you going to fix this problem?"

The command line MSFT C++ compiler is available for $0 somewhere on their website...

I don't know if this requires admin rights to install, but this might help: http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/ or maybe http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

Install, compile, uninstall. Poof, as if by magic, you have binaries.

I know, installing unapproved software will probably get you in trouble, so I guess you're screwed no matter what.

Sorry.

http://www.mingw.org/ or http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ might also be of use.

I know those aren't really helpful, since it's out of your hands.

I just downgraded to 5.6.1. There's not even source available for that module for the 813 build (5.8.7), so I'd have to compile the source for an older distro and pray.

So...you can upgrade/downgrade Perl as you wish, pull down Perl modules, but they don't let you have a C compiler?

Weird.

I could have a C compiler if I wanted one. I never said that I couldn't. :)

I'm just not going to sit here trying to configure my machine properly to compile perl modules. I've tried it before and it's a major pain in the ass to get it working.